It is known that cylindrical structures configured for use in high-stress applications such as energy conservation flywheels, firearm barrels, high-pressure storage, etc. must be constructed from materials having sufficient strength to retain structural integrity under extreme conditions including temperature, pressure, etc. For example, a gun barrel must be sufficiently strong enough to contain the pressure and temperature produced by the explosive discharge reaction when firing a round. Similarly, flywheels must be sufficiently strong enough to retain structural integrity while rotating around a central axis at extremely high speeds to efficiently store kinetic energy for subsequent use.
Therefore, it is critical to have a precise understanding of the structural properties of materials forming a system designed for use in applications involving such extreme conditions. Typically, with specific regard to pressure load capacity, and more specifically internal pressure load capacity, materials such as flywheels are tested by placing the flywheel system in a remote location (e.g. an underground bunker) and observing the effect of increasing stress on the flywheel (e.g. by placing sensors on the flywheel, by recording the test via cinematographic or photographic means, etc.). In particular, a flywheel is conventionally spun around an axis, and the rotational speed is increased until the flywheel experiences a structural failure, allowing observers to catalog the failure point of flywheels constructed from one or more particular materials.
However, conventional methods of testing cylindrical structures such as those described above suffer from several undesirable collateral consequences.
In particular, since testing is designed to accomplish structural failure of the test material by spinning at high speeds, it is common for the flywheel to experience a sudden, total structural failure, where the flywheel is accordingly disengaged from the central axis of rotation and ejected at extremely high velocity away from said axis. Indeed, this complication is the precise reason that conventional testing is typically conducted remotely—the ejected pieces of the test structure possess extremely high kinetic energy and cause devastating damage to the test facility (as well as anything inside the test facility).
Moreover, constructing remote test facilities, and reconstructing such facilities (or constructing new ones) after experiencing such a catastrophic failure is a complex, time-consuming, and expensive undertaking. All these collateral consequences undesirably impact the efficiency of the overall construction and testing process for new structural configurations and/or material compositions for cylindrical structures.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods for testing the internal pressure load capacity of cylindrical structures without using high-velocity spinning as a mechanism for generating a failure event. These developments would improve the efficiency of the testing process, reducing both the time and cost of testing procedures by obviating the need to construct or reconstruct testing facilities after catastrophic failure and corresponding collateral damage. Furthermore, by avoiding the spin-to-fail test approach, the dangers presented thereby may be avoided, obviating the need for remote testing facilities.